Today's Reading 31 August 2008

Blessed Sunday! I have really, really, really needed this day.

This has been a very long, very hard week, not just at the workplace, but in other areas as well. Dear wife is not well and has been trapped in a 60-hour/week job because we desperately need the income. Oour daughters are living 640 miles away, we miss them and at least one of them needs us, and my dad is around 1000 miles away in the other direction and not doing well after Mom passed last year. Wife hates her job, generally; I hate my job, generally, and we are a very long way from any place we can regard as home. We have made friends here, and God has evidently placed us here for His own reasons, and He is smarter than we are, but we would like to settle down somewhere. After 20 years of marriage, we have no sense of ''home'' anywhere on the planet. That is a lousy feeling, believe me. We feel like wanderers and vagabonds and it is just wearing us down. We are approaching the age that many people start to think about retirement in the not-too-distant future, and after the catastrophes of the last few years, we never can. We will, at this rate, be spending our last days desperately trying to earn our lunch money any way we can, and expect to die amongst strangers, anonymously and alone. It's a lousy prospect. God knew about this, long ago, and we are hanging on to Him, but I have learned that the ''Prosperity Gospel'', the 'blab it and grab it' types, are frauds and liars. Or worse. I can understand, perhaps, how the Psalmist felt sometimes when he felt desperate, abandoned, and alone.

And yet, in the midst of feeling just beaten down and discouraged, in these passages I am reminded of the provision, the power, the mercy, the grace, the love of God. And I am reminded that no matter how dark the night, He is still in control and morning is coming. That He has not forgotten the situation. That does not make it easy. But it does make it possible. And that may be enough.


This morning's reading is Psalms 145, 146, and 147.

Psalm 145

1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
8 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
10 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Psalm 146

1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:
6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
10 The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.

Psalm 147

1 Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
6 The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
13 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.
14 He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
16 He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
18 He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.

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This evening's reading is verses 1 through 15 of the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians.
There are some things here that I hesitate to get into because they lead to a lot of controversy and they get into contention. Or, as in verse 1, they put you on notice.

Look hard at verse 1. Paul is setting a high standard here. He seems to be saying that if you follow his example, you will be following Christ's example. That if you see him, you can discern something of the nature of Jesus. I am not sure that I would want people looking at me, hearing my every word, my demeanor, expecting thereby to see the light of Christ in me. How about you?

And then there are the sections that deal with women having their heads covered, men not wearing long hair, and similar matters.

When I was MUCH younger, and attending the remarkably legalistic church of my parents, it was a de facto requirement for all women of age, which in practice meant baptized females (we were Anabaptists, meaning infants were not baptized/christened, so the term implies at least an age of accountability and let's not get into a precise definition) were expected to wear some head covering at least in church. Some were so attired at ALL waking moments, my grandmothers and aunts certainly were though Mom was not. And even Mom got into the contest of judging the piety of others based upon the size of this head covering. That practice has largely been abandoned except in many black churches, the Wesleyans, and the mantilla worn by some Catholics. And I don't even want to get into the fuss over long hair on males -- I was around during the haircut wars, a time when some proclaimed that any hair length that would not have been acceptable to a Drill Sergeant was an offense against God, based upon this passage.

These are discussions that usually generate far more heat than light, I've been around for some of them, too many actually, and I do not want to go there. The Holy Spirit can illuminate these passages and I won't presume.

I Corinthians 11:1-15

1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.